in the news

i have been perusing the n y times the past few days to see what the elite thinks of the rest of us and finding pretty much what i expected...

advertisers have always targeted children ( since i have been around anyway ...i know, i was one )...an effective way to get to parental purses and wallets...( and we will get back to some of the intricacies of parenting in a little bit here...i am one of those too )...new found concern over the impact isn't all that new...manipulation has a long history...

a billionaire bought a statue for millions that might only be worth thousands and donated it as a cultural artifact to a hawaiian museum...red faces ( and hands ) all round...

a financial advisor/guru decided "the old fashioned way " wasn't nearly fast enough...there's a surprise...good to know consequentialism is alive and well here...everybody wants money...a lot of it..and right fucking now...and while we're on the subject of wanting a lot of money...

here's yesterday's realty section winner...a whole floor in boston for $45 million...the buyers must be lining up..best bet is they are all chinese...or maybe saudis looking to diversify locations for extra-judicial killings...either way locals are pretty much priced out of the market...

and finally ( final because the cognitive dissonance the paper was engendering was creating a massive headache and i was forced to put it down ) rutger bergman, one of the cadre of "young activists" like ocassio-cortez..has been haranguing financial elites and pissing tucker carlson off ( who is that by the by...i don't watch television...the names are foreign )..the article says he comes from a generation that grew up after the fall of the berlin wall when ( per the ever irrelevant and ultimately ever so wrong francis fukyama ) all ideological struggles had been settled and is finding that pronouncement untrue and is setting about to reform the globe that has lapsed into ideological doldrums...well...speaking as someone who came of age in ideologically charged times and was on of tricky dicks's "vocal minority" ( mom was aghast at my "impeach nixon" button ) a cautionary word or two...the war in vietnam ended...nixon resigned...civil rights were enshrined in the "law of the land"...and things didn't essentially change which is why the new cadre are "activists"...it is entirely possible that mr. bergman may spend his life involved in radical assessments of hegemonic culture ( he has written four books..i have ordered one for an assessment...there may be more electrons spilled over this soon )..or he may settle down as a tenured superstar professor ( think maybe steven pinker ) at some august european university and inspire youth in the classroom while continuing to churn out books and articles and living comfortably...ocassio-cortez? give the state of the amazon debate and the open letters ( also in yesterday's times ) from the hegemony's heavy hitters in ny asking for another chance, it could be she will find herself out of office in 2020...or she will settle in for a ten term run, be turned, and become the next peolosi...surely the green new deal is stillborn ( on terms of whoretown and legislation anyway ) and too little too late..we will see what she says when the book comes out ( i will be reading a synopsis..i doubt i will have the patience for both bregmnan's book and hers...youth is a time of illusion...disillusion comes later )..a final word to both...under no circumstances become parents...that act will radically alter your thinking...in ways so gradual you will not notice..and in ways that will knock you out of your chair. addendum:i read bregman's book and found it not only accessible, but cogent as well...can't judge a book by its cover or an author by something in the times...my apologies and recommendation...i was mistaken...i get to be human too.